Spending several days at the Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles has been one of the experiences that I will never forget because of the different video games that I have been able to try, among them some that have ended up being a very pleasant surprise for being titles from which I did not expect anything, since I didn’t even have them in my sights. This is how the opportunity to play Phantom Blade Zero arose, so I embarked on the adventure without knowing what I was going to find.
The only thing they had told me about it was that it was a kind of soulslike. As I have already mentioned on occasion when I have played a game of this type, it is a genre that I am not very good at. However, throughout the demo that I was testing, I was accompanied by one of the members of the Chinese studio S-Game, responsible for this work, and he assured me that it was a bit similar to the work of FromSoftware due to its combats, but It’s actually more of a hack ‘n’ slash.
Trusting his words, I decided to jump into battle without thinking twice and I have to admit that it was one of the best decisions I made during the days I visited the event, because it has certainly become one of the great games that I have enjoyed the most. surprised and that has all the ballots to be capable of ringing the bell during 2024
Tremendous combats in the purest oriental cinema
The demo I played wasn’t too long. I only had about 15 minutes at the controls, which actually could have been less, but I died a few times in the final battle because I didn’t want to see other people play like that. go completely new and without preconceived ideas, so I had to see as I went along what I was capable of doing. In addition, at the end you would see the number of deaths you had accumulated in order to sting you to do better on a second attempt.
That said, the first thing was to go through a tutorial to familiarize yourself with the controls. The truth is the gameplay is easy to understand, since you have a normal attack button and a stronger one and of course there is the possibility of dodging and blocking enemy impacts. At the same time, you can exchange between two melee weapons and two others to attack from a distance, but learning to master all this in the long run is a little more difficult.
Beyond non-stop combat, these first minutes also show that it is possible to climb walls, go through more remote places or follow various paths, although all of this was a bit of a passing point, given that the majority of the demo focused exclusively on the combat. Therefore, I can’t talk much more about anything that doesn’t have to do with fighting the numerous enemies and merciless final bosses that pass by.
Once the tutorial was completed, it was the moment of truth in This demo was divided into three parts. In the first one you had to defeat a group of enemies that didn’t put up much resistance and after finishing them all you had to defeat a final boss that wasn’t too complicated either, so it was good for me to test all the controls and enjoy the spectacle of sword blows that the game boasts.
And at some moments it seems entirely that you are watching an oriental action movie because of how amazing these encounters are. Especially because of the frenetic pace at which they happen, since the rain of cuts is constant and I was very impressed by how the swords sound when they constantly collide with each other, the flashes that stand out, the liters of blood that spread with each blow, as well as the smoke that rises with movements or when moving along the ground.
You could even say that everything is like a choreography in which the players’ reflexes are rewarded. In this sense, when the adversaries give off a blue flash, you have to block the blow at the right moment, in the same way that you have to dodge it if the light they give off is red, which serves to deliver one of the most devastating blows of all. with their respective sequence that leaves you speechless because of how brutal they are.
I could also see the latter in the second part of the demo in a fight against another final boss, because as you cut his body parts it looks like blood shoots out and stains the ground red. But they are not stains that disappear after a few seconds, but rather they stay there permanently to further reflect how beastly these fights are in which you practically have no second to breathe until you finish them off with a most violent finisher.
The final battle, which was against a final boss that could perfectly have been one of Blasphemous due to his clothing and weapons, was more challenging than all the previous ones. Such was the case that he had a blow that was capable of taking your head off instantly and that could only be avoided by hiding behind a column, so the environment plays an important role
Without a doubt, everything is very cinematic and amazing, to which is added the fact that graphically the game looks wonderful, with an ideal setting for its theme and a very dark color palette overall to give a more sinister and tense touch to these exciting fights. For this reason, every time you execute a perfect or very devastating blow, especially with firearms, including one that spits fire and another that acts as a cannon, it gives you enormous satisfaction.
For its part, among the melee weapons I saw a katana, a giant sword and a double sword to carry in each hand. At any time it is possible exchange one for anothereven in the middle of one of those deadly combos, although each weapon has its own movements and ways of playing, so that each one can choose the one that best suits their style.
What is clear is that the final bosses don’t fool around, but none of them seemed difficult enough to cause a feeling of frustration, which does not mean that it gave me enormous joy to defeat the last of them. Even so, I was left wanting to have played more and discover what more it has to offer Phantom Blade Zero, hoping that there will be exploration parts and not focus so much on fighting against imposing bosses. Whatever the case, this demo has already sold me on the game.
Close of Phantom Blade Zero
The only thing that has been confirmed in this regard about the date of Phantom Blade Zero is that it will arrive sometime in 2024. The exact day is a mystery, but at least we know that it will be available for PS5 and PC.
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